By Bianca Kapteyn
The Canadian trucker-on-a-rampage movie Cold Road – a descendant of the early Steven Spielberg film Duel – has grabbed attention for one of its key performances, the almost-human participation of a five-year-old border collie mix named Karibou.
Canine Culture had the privilege of catching up via Zoom with Dene filmmaker Kelvin Redvers, who shares insights into the unique journey of Karibou, his sister Juniper Redvers’ dog, affectionately dubbed “a Yukon special.”
‘Cold Road’ is available nationally on VOD/Tunes March 5.
In this film, an indigenous woman named Tracy Lee, portrayed by Cree Métis actor Rosanne Supernault, embarks on a journey with her canine companion, Pretzel (Karibou). However, their trip takes a terrifying turn when they find themselves pursued by a mysterious stranger in a semi-truck on the desolate highways of the Canadian North. Tracy’s mission to reach her remote First Nations community and visit her dying mother becomes a fight for survival.
Filmmaker Redvers provides a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the movie and Karibou’s role as an actor. Here’s what he had to say.
CC: What challenges did you face in training Karibou for his role in the film, considering he had no formal training?
KR: I would visit in the Yukon, and just everybody, whoever meets this dog falls in love with him immediately. He just has a special charm. There’s a character to him, a personality that, even if you’re just walking down the street, people would instantly like and everybody’s like “Oh my God what a cute dog.”
When I was writing this movie, I knowingly wanted to have this cold long journey on this lonely highway, and felt that a dog made sense to be a companion to this lead character, as she goes through her hardest day of her life. We all like to have dogs when we’re going through the hardest times in our life.
‘I actually wrote the part in the movie for Karibou, because he had such a charm, and such an ability to help people feel comfortable. Like, he just shares compassion, and that’s what the dog in the movie needs to do.
I think that he has all the same personality traits that in the movie this dog needs to portray. It was a bit of a leap of faith to pick your sister’s dog for a movie instead of a trained dog — his qualities were exactly what the character needed.
Photo credit: Joel Varjassy
CC: Can you tell us about any memorable moments on set involving Karibou that stand out to you or the cast and crew?
KR: This is a movie about a woman who’s driving home to her remote First Nation. There’s all sorts of action scenes. We did stunts. It was a really ambitious independent movie to make, especially with a dog.
Most of the movie takes place in the car and Tracy is driving. Pretzel is sitting in the passenger seat, and she’s talking to him, kind of exploring her own life as she’s going through.
We had three days to film inside the car — most of that is Tracy Lee, the lead character who is going through an emotional experience with a lot of challenges and trauma. In those three days, we took several hours filming with Karibou, where he is sitting beside her, having all his reactions. His character Pretzel is a huge part of the movie that you see a lot. But most of it is in the car, and most of that was filmed in about 2 1/2 hours.
Photo credit: Joel Varjassy
CC: How was Karibou cued in the car scenes?
KR: Karibou, sat in the car. He was looking out front with the dog trainer (Juniper’s partner) and me directing the dog, to get different types of looks and emotions from him.
We would have four-minute takes where the camera would just roll, and we would walk around to do different things. And with the dog performances, you want to have it not seem like he’s only looking at the dog trainer.
I think you see that in some movies where you just feel like the dog is like looking at someone waiting for like a treat. That didn’t work for this movie, because he should be sitting there chilling. We had to figure out different ways to have him be bored. We were trying all sorts of different things. And what ended up working the best, since he knows me and was more comfortable and familiar with me, was that I would make eye contact with him, and then I’d walk around the car making clicking sounds.
It took his attention away from the dog trainer Lori Lancaster, in a way where he just kind of like tuned into the space, like just sort of aware of the environment. Now and again, we would make a sound to be like ‘Karibou’ and then he would look at us, and so it just felt natural, felt like a natural dog being a dog, as opposed to a dog being told to do commands.
It was just this quiet two hours on set where you know he would do a little bit, then we help him out of the car. He would go for a walk outside (poop break).
The entire crew was so hushed watching this dog perform, and literally everybody in the crew was so impressed. They were all expecting nightmares like everybody talks about, how dogs can be so challenging on set.
CC: Can you provide insights into Karibou’s personality and temperament that made him a natural fit for the role in the film?
KR: Karibou was so well behaved, so charming and fun for me as a director to work with to get a performance out of him. When you watch the movie, he has so many different emotions that he conveys. this is the reason why we choose him. He looks like he’s happy, he looks forlorn and sometimes a bit scared.
I feel lucky as a movie director, we all want to discover movie stars. You want to be the person who finds Tom Hanks before he becomes Tom Hanks. That’s how I felt with Karibou.
I think dogs do end up reflecting a lot on their owners. My sister Juniper built this beautiful environment of love for him, and he really has just blossomed into an incredible special dog. Wherever he goes, he just gives.
When we started conversations with some of the dog trainers before they met Karibou, they were like, “Well, why not hire a dog that already has training?” I was like, “Well, because this dog especially was so determined, this dog was something special.”
So, when Laurie Boyle went up to work with Karibou for the first half day, she called me and said, “You were right. This dog has every trait that you would need to do this.” And she’s like, “Yeah, this is super rare.”
But I think that dogs are such a representation of goodness. I feel like they represent the positive aspects in life. Especially in this movie where the main character goes through so much trauma, it’s essential for the character Tracy to have that little bit of goodness that keeps her through.
I think that’s what dogs are to all of us, and especially in the movie, where her husband is so awful. The dog is so much better than the husband, she’s better off with the dog than the husband.
